warthog1 wrote:I was wondering how panniers go when you stand on a climb?Do they upset the balance of the bike and make it cumbersome?

I use panniers as well. In addition my attitude to panniers is similar to my attitude when I used to go bush walking with my backpack. If it fits in and I want to take it along I take it. As such my panniers are about 30 kilograms before I start my trip to work as I like to be prepared, and I figure hell I weigh so much a few measly kilos isn't going to make a lot of difference. (It doesn't. My speed reduced by 2 k an hour apparently).

I find them fine for climbing, in fact I would go so far as saying I virtually don't notice them in a standing climb as far as balance is concerned. I think if I did notice it I would simply repack them for the next time around. However I doubt you will notice the balance as the load is close to the wheel and centred for the most part over the wheel.

On the other hand when manuevaring around the garage or in our workshop after work if there isn't a lot of space for some reason they are a bit cumbersome. I see this as a positive. After all large target less likely to get hit by a vehicle.

Top weather in Brisbane, as others had. Legs were crampy at the start, so I took it easy initially, then went at a moderate pace on a back street burn. Two cars pulling out of their drives (one each side) at the bottom of the funnest downhill on my commute .

warthog1 wrote:I was wondering how panniers go when you stand on a climb?Do they upset the balance of the bike and make it cumbersome?

Panniers don't seem to upset the balance. I have them on both side, but I think even if you only have it on either left or right, your bike will balance itself.

Panniers seems to increase air drag if you want to travel faster, like 20 kph and above. What I feel is anything below 20 kph, pannier air drag is negligible. The weight is also affecting the bike to gain more speed compared to the bike without it.

I got myself a couple of wind resistant long sleeved fleece tops from Kathmandu last weekend, and some long leggings. I couldn't ride earlier this week due to various work things/ children to take places, so I was dying to try them out. Of course this morning wasn't really cold enough so I was way too hot riding to work LOL!

I'm really going to need some lights in the next couple of weeks. I got home at 5.40 this evening and the street lights weren't on yet, but I reckon it will only be another week or two and it will be getting dark by the time I get home. It's expensive this cycling gig.

TigerFilly wrote:I got myself a couple of wind resistant long sleeved fleece tops from Kathmandu last weekend, and some long leggings. I couldn't ride earlier this week due to various work things/ children to take places, so I was dying to try them out. Of course this morning wasn't really cold enough so I was way too hot riding to work LOL!

I'm really going to need some lights in the next couple of weeks. I got home at 5.40 this evening and the street lights weren't on yet, but I reckon it will only be another week or two and it will be getting dark by the time I get home. It's expensive this cycling gig.

I 100% agree that cycling is expensive, but do not discount the benefits of it.-you do not have to pay for gym membership-no need to buy petrol-you always arrive at the office in a good mood-your mind is somehow always fulfilled and satisfied each and every ride-it improves almost anything on your body that has something to do with physical and toughness-and so much more.....

TigerFilly wrote:I got myself a couple of wind resistant long sleeved fleece tops from Kathmandu last weekend, and some long leggings. I couldn't ride earlier this week due to various work things/ children to take places, so I was dying to try them out. Of course this morning wasn't really cold enough so I was way too hot riding to work LOL!

I'm really going to need some lights in the next couple of weeks. I got home at 5.40 this evening and the street lights weren't on yet, but I reckon it will only be another week or two and it will be getting dark by the time I get home. It's expensive this cycling gig.

I 100% agree that cycling is expensive, but do not discount the benefits of it.-you do not have to pay for gym membership-no need to buy petrol-you always arrive at the office in a good mood-your mind is somehow always fulfilled and satisfied each and every ride-it improves almost anything on your body that has something to do with physical and toughness-and so much more.....

You also feel like having a nap at 5pm because you got up at 3-4am for a ride before the commute in to work

Lovely evening in Melbourne to ride home tonight. Pleasant temperature and no wind at all.

I've never had panniers but I can say that standing with a big bag in a basket on the back does make balancing a bit trickier. It's not that bad though, and the weight is a lot higher than it would be in panniers. Maybe one day I'll try them but for the moment I prefer the basket. And, like the poster above, I carry way too much!

compare the costs to how you used to get to work. For me, that was bus. A bus for me is over $10 per dayAnd as rheicel said:no gym membershipgood mood when I got to workexercise is part of your routine, not something you have to make time forand the best bit for me: when I get home from work I can't remember what I did that day

Good, quick ride back on Friday. Disconcerting encounter on the Darebin Creek Trail - heading around a lefthand bend with some obscuring bushes, a schoolkid comes flying down the hill on the wrong side of the path. I quickly flicked the bike to the right while she opted to head onto the grass, disaster averted.Cool for the ride into the Melbourne CBD today, but clear and pleasant.

Wednesday evening's ride: I did not expect the rain (although I should have) so got caught out without the booties on. Luckily the mudguards are a permanent fixture. I tried to make small talk to a commuter on a mountain bike at one set of lights while it was pouring down on us but he just didn't want to talk back.

So that wet trip home necessitated a clean of my white cycling shoes (why on earth did I buy white??? Silly silly) and the bike as well as a drying out of all my equipment. Luckily the GoPro didn't get wet even though it didn't have the waterproof housing on.

No rides on Thursday or Friday as I took Friday off. That was quite enjoyable not having to go to work on Friday.

Non-commuting story: On Sunday my mother and I were scheduled to go on a 2 hour historical cycling tour around Richmond. Mum is really into history (I'm not) and I want to get her to ride her bike more. So I get her to come over to my place, pump up her tyres (they were fairly flat from non-use), lube her chain and all is good. We ride the couple of kms to the meet-up point with her really not confident on the roads (I took her on back streets and on a road with a bike lane). We get to the meeting point, do the initial chat and then walk across the Bridge Road pedestrian lights to get onto Yarra Boulevard to start the cycling tour... And her tyre goes pfft. Completely flat with a noticeable leak hole. I had wanted to put one of my spare tubes, levers and pump in the bag (as my tyre had been playing up when pumping it that morning so I thought it'd blow) but she said she didn't want to be loaded up and since we weren't far from home I decided not to take anything.

So it seems some glass on the footpath may have punctured the tyre before we even started the ride. She decided to walk back to my place and so ended her historical cycling tour. Pretty much everyone else on the ride was riding vintage bikes (there were four penny farthings which were really cool) so no-one else could really help. It was such a shame as she was really looking forward to it and I could have seen how she fared on a 12 km ride (with plenty of breaks for the history lessons). I was thinking about giving her my bike to continue the tour, but she's never ridden a road bike and I had the 105 pedals on so that wasn't really an option.

This morning was a beautiful ride into work, apart from the GoPro deciding not to turn on. The reason it won't start is because the battery bacpac is empty of charge, even if the camera itself still has charge. Which is really stupid, IMO.

My rear wheel packed it in on the ride home today. I had just left the office and was starting to climb a pimple of a hill when I heard a noise. As usual, I didnt take much notice as everything kept going. As I am riding along I just had this feeling that all is not right, the bike didnt seem to be travelling as smoothly as normal, yet my average was up around 32, so I just thought my mind was playing tricks.

Got to the death bridge at Tarro and as usual walked across it. The bike felt sluggish as if the brake was on. Got to the other side of the bridge and stopped to check things out. The brakes looked ok and I spun the wheels, it was then that I noticed it. The rear wheel was out of whack hugely and I saw two spokes loose. Checked a bit more and part of the actual hub had sheered off where the spokes connected to it.

Blew me away. Yes always thought when am I going to experience a broken spoke or two, but really didnt think the hub itself would break. Anyone experienced that before??

Started making a few hurried phone calls as I was about 33/34 k's from home. Potential lifts wouldnt have got to me for a few hours but luckily for me there was a train station close by. Only issue with this was that I had to cross a major 4 lane highway with somewhat peak hour traffic, plenty of b-doubles and trucks in general.

Long story short, got the train home, pulled out the old bike and swapped the cassettes and wheels over and am now ready to hit the road again in the morning.

One expense I wasnt really planning on but that rear wheel had done me personally close to 20 thousand k's. It was second hand so I have no idea how many it did prior to me.

Applying constant-too-much power on there mate. The only situation I broke 3 spokes on my rear wheel is when I cut the chain too short and run big-big, snap the rear derailleur towards the spoke. And this happens on my 2 weeks old carbon wheels.

I'm planning our first ride to school in 6 months tomorrow! We used to ride a lot, with my youngest on the tag-a-long. Then she got too big for the tag-a-long, but couldn't get the hang of her own bike, so we haven't been able to ride together for the last 6 months. My 10 year old has still been riding to school by himself, but not us all together. Now my 6 yr old has the hang of it (as per success thread in general discussion!), so we did a couple of practice rides up to school at the weekend, and she is all keen to get there on her own steam for the first day of school tomorrow.It usually takes me 20 mins from near their school to my workplace, and I can't leave them on the school grounds until 8.30pm, so I'm trying to make up my mind whether to really push it and try and get there as fast as possible so I have time to get changed when I get there. Or, do the opposite, plan to take it easy, take up to half an hour and be fresh enough not to need to get changed.